Covid treatment centre capacity now at 61pct, says health minister

 

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said the capacity of Low-risk Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres nationwide is now at 61 percent.

He said the ministry has provided 29,835 beds at 132 of these centres throughout the country to treat Covid-19 positive individuals.

He said in 221 hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, there were 15,090 beds in public health facilities and 1,288 in private facilities, while the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds was1,405 in public hospitals and 128 in private hospitals.

“Medical equipment such as ventilators, patient monitoring devices, and others were also increased to strengthen the capability and preparedness to combat Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Adham was speaking at the briefing session on actions to combat Covid-19 in the special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat in Parliament today.

He said the current spike in new cases is due to sporadic cases which are not related to cluster cases.

"The third wave began on September 20, 2020 and is still going on and as of yesterday, 1,017,787 positive Covid-19 cases with 8,071 deaths were recorded.

“Even though the number of positive Covid-19 cases is high, the number of serious cases under Categories 3, 4, and 5 based on clinical conditions when they were initially diagnosed is small compared to the total cases,” he said.

To fight the pandemic, he said the government is taking a comprehensive approach to protect lives and ensure the survival of the people as well as the rehabilitation of the economy.

Adham said RM7.13 billion (RM1 billion in 2020 and RM6.13 billion in 2021) had been received by his ministry for screening and treatment of Covid-19 patients while RM4.78 billion was for procuring Covid-19 vaccines as well as consumables and vaccine storage equipment.

He said following the current requirements, his ministry was seeking a supplementary allocation of RM1.14 billion for the procurement of health equipment such as reagents, consumables, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

On human resources to manage the pandemic, he said the ministry had approved 278,023 permanent posts as well as 40,000 contract appointments.

He added that the Health Ministry also appointed 1,519 additional contract health personnel based on the approval of central agencies to be placed at health facilities in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Negeri Sembilan.

"We are not sure when the pandemic could be controlled and completely end... the service and sacrifice of the frontline health workers who work hard in providing the best health services to Malaysians should not go in vain.

"Some of them have not seen their family members for months and have had to stay away to treat and save the lives of patients until some of them have been infected," he said.

On the detection of Covid-19, Adham said until yesterday, the capacity of Reverse Polymerase-Transcription (RT-PCR) laboratory tests nationwide recorded an increase of 1,874 percent, which was 122,603 per day compared to 6,210 in March 2020.

He said based on this, the testing capacity of each state also saw an increase, for example in Selangor, which went up to 2.43 million in the first six months of 2021 compared to 840,165 tests last year.

- Bernama